User
creates an account with a username, email address, password, zip/state,
avatar and they tag themselves by their interest declarations with regard
to their subject, grade, and topic interests. Many social networks look
empty because they don't default their users with a unique icon. MySyllabi
gives the user a selection of avatars to choose from based on their
subject/grade/topic interests as well as the ability to upload their
own. Upon registration, the user is given an @mysyllabi.org email address.

The registration
process is made up of four steps. The first step is made up of the details
mentioned above. The second step involves decorating the user's default
classroom. The third step involves linking the user up with her company
just in case another co-worker has already set up an account on the
site. This matching process is done using the email address of the user
as well as their grade and state data. The fourth step involves creating
accounts for co-workers.go
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MY PROFILE/INBOX

The
users inbox/profile is made up of the username, the user's avatar, the
description of the user, a listing of her interest tags, all the public
resources and messages she has created intermingled with resources and
messages received in her inbox. Users can click on the calendar on the
left in order to display a set of listings in the past or future. By
toggling among the hyperlinks at the top of a user's Inbox, that user
can see her subscriptions, her sent messages, and her private resources.
She can also filter postings by category, subject, and grade. By toggling
among the hyperlinks at the top of a user's Profile page, you can see
her favorites folder of resources, her colleagues list, her classrooms
list, her list of subscriptions, and statistics on how active the user
is. These affiliations are also featured in boxes on the left sidebar
along with additional boxes for her schools list. If a teacher keeps
her profile public then other teachers are free to browse through all
the components of a user's profile. go
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CLASSROOM PAGE

Vendor/Sponsor
users are given a default classroom page upon registration. A classroom
page is like a blog. It is a collection of resource contributions made
on behalf of the classroom. A classroom page has a profile/description,
an avatar, subscribers (teachers, parents, & students), permissions
and user roles for those subscribers, a list of contributions made on
behalf of the classroom, resources relaid to the page from other classrooms,
a favorite folder and sub-folders therein, a calendar view of all resource
associated with the classroom, privacy settings, category tags (subjects,
grades, topics) so that similar teachers can find the classroom and
subscriptions so that the classroom can be put on “auto-pilot”
and thereafter dependent on the contributions of another classroom.
A vendor/sponsor can create and be administrator of as many classroom
pages as she wishes. Administrators and those subscribers with privileges
have the ability to reorder/reschedule contributions however they see
fit. All classroom subscribers are featured in the Subscribing teachers
box in the left sidebar or by clicking the subscribers hyperlink in
the top of the classroom profiles page.go
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PRIVACY SETTINGS

Permission
functionality for teachers, students, and parent scales for the vendor
experience and allows us to create a foundation where purchase packages
can be created in a future development date. We have access to keep
resources and classrooms private so that a limited amount of select
user have access. In phase two of development, we will scale this technology
to allow teacher, school/district admin, parent, and student users to
subscribe to classrooms or buy individual content by piece. For phase
one, vendor/sponsors will user this functionality to draft resources
and stage them for their intended user base.go
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RESOURCE CREATION

Users
can create resources that are stored within particular classroom pages.
The authoring template to create resources is dynamic and dependent
on the type of resource the user wants to create. These types include
weblink, folder, video, chat, slideshow, image, learning game, assessment,
or audio. Authors can also attach files or url address to a resource.
Resources can be kept private so that only the user can see them in
draft, permissions can be set so that only a particular group of users
can see the resource (like a group), or they can be made public so that
they can be seen by the entire MySyllabi community through search, what's
new, or inbox feeds. If a resource is made public, it must be tagged
by subject, grade and topic so that it can be displayed to the right
users in the MySyllabi community. A user can only author resources on
behalf of the classroom page, not on behalf of herself (her profile).go to top

MESSAGE CREATION

Individual
messages and group messages can be sent, delivered and received on MySyllabi.
Message authoring can be initiated by going to someone 's profile page
and clicking the "send message" button or the user can click
the create tab and select "message" in order to create. A
message has a title, body and attachments. It has a list of recipients
that the user can select from her contacts list (made from her classroom
subscription affiliations or from her colleague list). You cannot send
unsolicited messages to someone within the MySyllabi community. You
must be affiliated by classroom or colleague list in order to send a
message to someone within the MySyllabi community. A message can be
created on behalf of a user, or on behalf of a classroom or school.
Messages can be sent to outside email address using the MySyllabi tool.
Emails from outside address can also be received within the MySyllabi
tool if the user either configures their primary email address . Future
business opportunities may allow us to sell email packages to vendors
CEO's just as much as our core intends for us to sell them to school/district
administers.go to top

MY COLLEAGUES

To
add someone to your colleagues, a user visits that user's profile and
clicks the “add to colleagues” button. That potential colleague
must confirm the request in order for the two user's to be colleagues.
Benefits of my colleagues is message control against spam and convenient
access within the colleagues box on the left sidebar in order to forward
listings. You must be affiliated by classroom or colleague list in order
to send a message to someone within the MySyllabi community. go
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WHAT'S NEW

Upon
sign-in, a user is presented with a view of the most popular resources
scheduled today on classroom pages throughout the entire MySyllabi site.
The list of resources that the users sees is filtered by the same subject,
grade, and topic interest tags as the user originally declared upon
registration. The list includes all types of resources. The order for
which the resources are ranked is dependent on how many classroom pages
a particular resource is scheduled on. The algorithm takes into consideration
how many classroom pages the resource is scheduled on today as well
as how many classroom pages the resources is scheduled for any date.
Users can click on calendar days on the box on the left in order to
view a set of listings from the past or future. User can filter the
list of resources by subject/grade/topic tags or by state standards.
If she does so wish, the user can click on the customize hyperlink and
further filter the daily output she sees under her default what's new
tab. On this what's new customization page, the user can map out what
topical resources she'd like to see in whats new throughout the calendar
of the year. By sequencing & scheduling these topics, the user is
qualifying what topical resources she sees over various time segments
throughout the year. Technically speaking, this page controls the default
topic filter of the resource feed and changes it accordingly by date.
The user can also toggle to see the most recent teachers to join the
community, the most recent classrooms created within the community,
and the most recent schools to sign up for the community; all relative
to the users subject, grade, and topic interests declared upon registration.
These additional queues are ranked chronologically.go
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BROWSING WITH TABS

A
vendor/sponsor user's display is made of a series of tabs on the right,
“body”, portion of the screen. These tabs include the the
What's New, Inbox, and Creation tabs mentioned above as well as a Classrooms,
Teachers, and Resources tab where users can browse through the MySyllabi
community.

Under the
Teachers tab, the user can view an output of teacher profile listings.
At the default screen, three folders are featured at the top of the
list allowing the user to browse within the top three teacher categories.
Underneath is a list of the top, most active teachers across the nation
according to the user's subject/grade/topic interests. The user can
filter by subject and grade, state or by category. These categories
include teachers, administrators, librarians, professors, curriculum
coordinators, tech coordinators, and educational publishers. Users can
toggle to see the most active, “top”, colleagues or toggle
to view a list of my colleagues.

Under the
resources tab, the user can browse through terrific resources stored
in our database. At the default screen, three folders are featured at
the top of the list allowing the user to browse within the top three
resource categories. Underneath is a list of the top, most active resources
according to the algorithm mentioned above and the user's subject/grade/topic
interests. The user can filter by subject and grade, state standard
or by category. Users can toggle to see new resources or toggle to view
a list of my resources.

Under
the classrooms tab, the user can browse through terrific classrooms
active within our community. At the default screen, three folders are
featured at the top of the list allowing the user to browse within the
top three classroom categories. Underneath is a list of the top, most
active classrooms according to the algorithm mentioned above and the
user's subject/grade/topic interests. The user can filter by subject
and grade, state or by category. These categories include educational
publishers, pre-schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges &
universities, schools of education, private schools, home schools, charter
schools, department of education, professional development, teacher
associations, technology groups, and vendors/sponsors. Users can toggle
to create a new classroom or toggle to view a list of my classrooms.

Similar functionality
surrounds the experience when a user clicks on the browse schools hyperlink
featured in the schools box on the left sidebar. Here, the user can
browse through terrific schools active within our community. At the
default screen, three folders are featured at the top of the list allowing
the user to browse within the top three school categories. Underneath
is a list of the top, most active schools. The user can filter by subject
and grade, state or by category. These categories include pre-schools,
elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, charter schools, private
schools, secondary schools, grad schools, colleges, universities, training
schools, and summer schools. Users can toggle to see the most active
“top” schools, toggle to see new schools, or toggle to view
a list of my schools.

Similar
functionality also surrounds the experience when a user clicks on the
EDU+AID logo featured in the sponsors box on the left sidebar. Under
the sponsors screen, the user can browse through terrific sponsors active
within our community. At the default screen, the most active sponsors
are featured according to the amount of dollars donated to teachers.
Users can toggle to see new sponsors according to category: entertainment,
clothes, equipment, food, travel, & misc. Each listed sponsor offers
a merit based pay raise opportunity for a teacher as well as a promotional
discount/give-away. Sponsors on these toggle pages are ranked by the
amount of available sponsorship opportunities.go
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SEARCH

All
public resources, teacher profiles, classroom profiles, and school profiles
are crawlable and ranked because they must be tagged. Messages are not
crawlable. Through keyword input, a user is returned a queue of listings
ranked by the either the amount of activity within the classroom, the
amount of calendars/classroom posting pages a resource is posted on,
or the amount of activity a teacher or school is involved in. go to top

RELAYING

Every
listing in MySyllabi is mobile, meaning that it can be forwarded to
the inbox of either a classroom or the inbox of a user. If a resource
is relaid, then a duplicate copy of the record is stored on the classroom
page or inbox and "parent" data is stored within the new record.
Users are free to delete the new record if they wish but if they choose
to edit the listing, then the original "parent" data is retained.
If a classroom, user profile, or school is relaid to a classroom or
user inbox, then an agent record is stored on the classroom page or
inbox, which points to the particular profile. To relay a listing in
MySyllabi, a user can drag and drop the icon to its left towards each
of the boxes featured on the left. Users can also relay resources, by
opening them up and clicking on the hyperlinks featured at the bottom
of the hover box (which opens a according menu). Listings relaid to
an inbox go to the top of the inbox's stack for the day. Listings relaid
to a calendar day on the left go to the top of the inbox for the according
day selected.go to top

SUBSCRIBING TO A
CLASSROOM

Classroom
administrators can set permissions determining who can view affiliated
items. One of those permissions is the right to subscribe to a classroom.
Classroom subscriptions allow users to receive an automatic feed to
their inbox every time a new contribution is added to a classroom. Similar
to a relay, this feed automatically creates a new record in the user's
inbox. Users are free to delete the new record if they wish but if they
choose to edit the listing, then the original "parent" data
is retained. Depending on the permissions of the classroom, subscribers
may be able to contribute collaboratively to the classroom as well.
This is a great way for a vendor/sponsor to build a relationship with
teachers. Notification feeds consolidate records stored in a user's
personal inbox when the user contributes to a classroom that they subscribe
to. When viewing the classroom page queue, the user can see who authored
each contribution, while non-subscribers only see the classroom avatar.
Private resources can only be seen by classroom subscribers. Future
iterations of the site will relegate the visibility of paid subscription
content using this same rule-set. Resources relaid to the classroom
page feature the avatar of the originating classroom. To subscribe to
a classroom, a users visits the profile page of the classroom and clicks
on the "subscribe" link featured within the classroom description.
All classroom affiliations are featured as a thumbnail in the classrooms
box featured in the left sidebar. go
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DIGITAL SYLLABUS

If
a user likes the entire contents of a particular classroom page but
wants to customize it to her own classroom calendar, she has a unique
tool called a digital syllabus. A digital syllabus is sequence of classroom
postings that a teacher can insert into her calendar, starting on the
day of her choosing. The contents of the blog are then-after dripped
according to the subscriber at the pace for which they are originally
authored/scheduled (with weekends taken into consideration). Teachers
can edit digital syllabi before they insert them into their calendar.
This is valuable not only for curriculum spanning an entire year but
also in smaller spitz such as a few weeks covering a unit or a few days
covering a lesson. A teacher can create new digital syllabi by clicking
from a classroom posting page that she has created or one made by other
permitting teachers in the community. Digital syllabi can also be converted
from filled folders or from classroom pages. They can also be created
from a blank slate by dragging resources from the resource box on the
right to the calendar days featured on the right. After opening A digital
syllabus up to see in month calendar view, the teacher can also rearrange
and delete resources scheduled.go
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VENDOR SPONSORSHIP

A
teacher user can browse through opportunities to have her classrooms
sponsored. Underneath the Main Classrooms tab is a folder full of class
sponsorship opportunities. A teacher can visit the classroom profile
page of these sponsors and click on the "sponsorship request"
button. That vendor is then represented as a sponsor for each classroom
that the teacher is an administrator of. By selecting a sponsorship,
a teacher is eligible for rewards provided by the sponsor depending
on the listed requirements associated with the particular sponsorship
program she selects. These requirements are tied to the statistics of
the classroom which focus on consumption rates of subscribers. Classroom
sponsorships are brought to light with a banner ad featured in a box
on the left sidebar. Classroom sponsorship is also highlighted with
a thumbnail next to every resource sent home from that classroom. Clicking
this thumbnail travels the user to sponsor's classroom page. Teachers
may opt-out of sponsorship for any of their classrooms, but they only
receive reward from the sponsor if they fulfill the listed statistical
requirements.go to top

CONTEXTUAL SIDE BAR

To
the left of all output is a contextual side bar that facilitates easy
navigation and organization around the MySyllabi website. The different
types of affiliation boxes include Classrooms, Calendar, Teachers, Resources,
Parents, Students, Schools, and Sponsors. The thumbnails featured in
these boxes are in the same order as the user defines them on their
full blown sisters. There is an additional vertical scroll bar positioned
to the left of the window as well. This scroll bar allows the user to
vertically scroll and position the boxes for optimum drag n' drop efficiency.
Ideally, we will be make this scrolling action a cycled loop so that
when the user navigates to the bottom of the scroll bar, it automatically
restarts from the top. All listing featured throughout the site can
be dragged and dropped into the thumbnails of these boxes. By simply
rolling over the thumbnails within each box, the title of the thumbnail's
destination is interchanged with the caption of the box. The sidebar
does not reload when the user navigates from the right side and takes
advantage of framing technology. The sidebar also takes advantage of
variable window size among different monitors and screen resolutions.
Users can expand the sidebar horizontally and expand the horizontal
length of each box. Each box can also be expanded vertically. In both
cases more thumbnails are possibly displayed and any spill over is compensated
with a mini scroll bar positioned on the right of each box.

While the
sidebar does not reload when the user navigates from the right side
of the page, it does take cues upon these hyperlink clicks commissioned
on the right side of the page. These cues send reload instructions to
particular boxes within the scroll bar, allowing them to reload individually
with ajax technology. These boxes are dynamic depending on where the
user has found herself navigated on the site. If a user is browsing
or situated in front of My Profile content, then the content featured
within the boxes is relative to my affiliations. However, if I am viewing
the profile of a particular classroom, teachers, parents, student, school,
or sponsor/vendor, then the contents in each of these boxes is relative
to the affiliation of that particular profile. What is unique about
these boxes is that they serve for ample navigation on their own. By
clicking on the caption of each box, the user is able to toggle between
particular affiliations that are relevant at the time. For example.
If I am on a school profile, then I can click on the caption of the
calendar box to toggle between sets of calendars representing each of
the classrooms of the school. Same true if I am on a my profile, and
I click on the caption of the teachers box. I default with thumbnail
content relative to my colleagues, but if I click on the caption, I
can toggle through teacher subscriber collections for each of the classrooms
I am affiliated to. This tool is extremely useful when relaying great
listings, especially when I want to relay a listing to a particular
day in the future on the calendar of one of the classrooms I am either
administrator or subscriber of.go
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OPENED RESOURCES

Resources
can be opened from numerous locations throughout the site. To open a
resource, a user can simply click on the title. By doing so a hover
over box opens and resizes according the containing content. The rest
of the screen grays out when a resource is open and it can be closed
by either clicking the “close” hyperlink in the menu at
the top of the hover over or by clicking anywhere in the gray area.
The layout of the resource hover over is made up of a menu of hyperlinks
at the top and bottom as well as content located in the middle. Controls
to navigate the content is featured within the content itself and depend
on the type the resource represents (eg. Play button within a video).
The hyperlinks in the bottom menu allow for relay without having to
drag and drop. These controls include adding the resource to a classroom
calendar, directly forward a resource directly to the top of a classroom
stack, and forward a resource to a colleague. In addition, controls
here include the ability open the resource in a new tab, the ability
to flag the content as inappropriate, and the ability to edit or delete
the resource. Hyperlinks belonging to the menu at the top of the hover
over window include controls featuring information about the resource.
These include a toggle to see usage and consumption statistics of the
resource itself, a toggle to see who has viewed the resource and when
they viewed it, a toggle listing the permissions set by the original
author, a toggle listing all comments left from consuming users, a toggle
featuring tags set by the original author, and a toggle featuring all
the classrooms that the resource has been scheduled on.go
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